Obituary - Tanya Willmer, popular and talented journalist with a great sense of fun

Former Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent Tanya Willmer died on June 15 after a brief battle with colon cancer. She was 62.

Willmer, who began her journalism career straight out of school with the Henley Standard in her U.K. hometown, was talent-spotted by Reuters while working in Hong Kong for the South China Morning Post in the late 1980s.

She enjoyed a nearly 40-year career across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

Her winning combination of journalistic excellence and infectious camaraderie made her a much-loved colleague and forged enduring friendships wherever she went with Reuters and then AFP, where she spent nearly 30 years.

She enjoyed postings with Reuters in Sydney, and then Toronto in the early 1990s during the divisive Quebec referendum.

That stint in a bilingual country at the breaking point between French and English culture led her to appreciate the value of a second language as an agency journalist.

She took herself off to Montpellier in southern France for a year to learn French and afterwards was quickly snapped up by Agence France-Presse in 1996, where her career took off.

After a short stretch on the Europe-Africa English Desk in Paris, Willmer’s diligence, hard-nosed journalism and engaging personality established her as a prized operator.

AFP posted her to their Middle East English Desk in Nicosia, followed by stints in Jerusalem, Paris Desk, Head of Desk in Nicosia, Head of Desk in Hong Kong, Head of Desk in Paris and finally her dream job as East Africa Bureau Chief in Nairobi in 2021.

Along the way, Tanya charmed colleagues, contacts, friends and rivals with her meticulous attention to journalistic detail, ready smile, and razor-sharp wit.

She was sceptical of those who wielded power, keen to ask the tough questions and make them accountable, including even the people who paid her salary.

“One of Tanya’s greatest strengths was her fearlessness in challenging the editorial hierarchy. Frequently, she was right - and her questioning produced better copy. She made those around her better journalists,” AFP’s former head of the MENA English Desk in Nicosia, Chris Lefkow said.

Her former Reuters colleagues in Toronto and Sydney remember Tanya’s collegial supportive side, which helped a raft of young journalists launch their careers.

“Tanya was a great journalist and a mentor to the youngsters in the old Toronto office,” said Darren Schuettler, who worked with her there.

Reuters Sydney Correspondent Michael Perry said he and Tanya had remained good friends since they first joined Reuters together more than 30 years ago.

“She was a wonderful journalist, with a hunger to report from Africa, which she did regardless of what obstacles were placed in her path, which meant switching to AFP. She was also funny and witty and a person who truly cared for others,” Perry said.

Former Managing Editor for Europe Sarah Edmonds considered herself lucky to work with Tanya at Reuters Toronto in the early 1990s.

“She was a fantastic colleague: smart, energetic and unfailingly hilarious. The world has lost a terrific journalist, and we are all the poorer for it.” Edmonds said.

Paul Casciato, who had remained close to Tanya since their days in the Reuters Toronto bureau, recalled her lively personality.

“She laughed with you, inspired you to be a better journalist and colleague. She breezed into our lives with that husky laugh and those sparkling eyes and you were at once captivated by her fizzing joie de vivre.”

Good Toronto-era friend and journalist Liza Herz recalled one legendary Halloween party Tanya threw in the 1990s, where she was dressed as a former British Conservative politician scandalously found dead wearing black stockings with an orange in his mouth after asphyxiating himself during an erotic act. In the middle of a wild, boozy and loud party, Tanya was suddenly summoned to the kitchen phone to deal with an urgent story for Reuters.

“There she was, dressed in black stockings and leather with an orange hung around her neck, calmly dictating a story to the desk in New York, while everyone else was dancing and drinking and laughing around her,” said Herz. “She was such a bad-ass.”

Tanya is survived by her parents Katie and Peter Willmer, her sister Sarah and brother Andy. 

Her funeral  will be held at Pere Lachaise Crematorium in Paris on 26 June.

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